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Post subject: Tube amp "warm up" time.
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 4:44 am
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G'day.
Please bear with me for a moment...

Last week I bought my 1st ever tube amp, a Blues Jr. Now whenever I've been in a store trying something out the salesguy always seems to turn the amp on or put it on standby for a while to "let the tubes warm up" while he'd tune the guitar for me to try out.

Now I couldn't find anything in the instructions about doing this so my question is "is this necessary?" and if so "how long do they take to warm up?" and "what happens if I just plug in, turn on, and play?

Sorry I know this is probably really fundamental but I'm just interested to know.

Cheers.

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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:54 am
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That question was the center of discussion last summer..... this might give you some insight to what some people think.


http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... highlight=


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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:00 am
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Its a good habit to let tubes warm up, at least one minute, then switch the stand-by before playing. helps to prolong tube life. you should also let amp/tubes adjust to room temp. before you turn on to play, if brought in from cold/hot outside air. condensation can do serious damage. keep liquids and beverage away from amps. enjoy your amp, its a great amp. :)

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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:05 am
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with no stand-by on the jr. I let it warm up for at least a minute before I plug in to rock.

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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:07 am
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You should let the tubes warm up on standby. This heats the filament and warms the plates before the high voltages hit the plate of the tube. Its not a good idea to hit the plates cold with high voltage. Mesa Boogie recommends 20-30 seconds of warm up. They also go on to mention that they test the amp and tubes to be turned on without being on standby hundreds of times, and report there is no problem if you fail to power up in standby.

If there is no standby switch, there is nothing you can do. The high voltages are hitting the plates as soon as you turn it on. This can lead to shorter tube life, but is not hurting the amp. Just like any metal, the plate can heat and expand to quickly and lead to internal shorts in the tube. Its really only a problem if there is a bit of a factory defect in the tube. This is why they say it CAN lead to shorter tube life, not that it WILL lead to shorter tube life. Don't worry about it plug in, play and enjoy.

You will notice that your amps sounds a bit better after the tubes get nice and hot.

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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:23 am
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firstrat wrote:
You should let the tubes warm up on standby. This heats the filament and warms the plates before the high voltages hit the plate of the tube. Its not a good idea to hit the plates cold with high voltage. Mesa Boogie recommends 20-30 seconds of warm up. They also go on to mention that they test the amp and tubes to be turned on without being on standby hundreds of times, and report there is no problem if you fail to power up in standby.

If there is no standby switch, there is nothing you can do. The high voltages are hitting the plates as soon as you turn it on. This can lead to shorter tube life, but is not hurting the amp. Just like any metal, the plate can heat and expand to quickly and lead to internal shorts in the tube. Its really only a problem if there is a bit of a factory defect in the tube. This is why they say it CAN lead to shorter tube life, not that it WILL lead to shorter tube life. Don't worry about it plug in, play and enjoy.

You will notice that your amps sounds a bit better after the tubes get nice and hot.


I just replaced a 30 year old 6V6 in my 74 Champ that has no standby. I only replaced it because it started to rattle a little. I wouldn't worry about it. Tubes are designed that way. If that were the case of a tubes getting slammed by high voltage I'd be replacing them every week. All the standby switch is doing is letting the tube filaments heat up to proper operating temperature. Newer tubes who knows? They don't make em like they used to.


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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:25 am
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63supro wrote:
firstrat wrote:
You should let the tubes warm up on standby. This heats the filament and warms the plates before the high voltages hit the plate of the tube. Its not a good idea to hit the plates cold with high voltage. Mesa Boogie recommends 20-30 seconds of warm up. They also go on to mention that they test the amp and tubes to be turned on without being on standby hundreds of times, and report there is no problem if you fail to power up in standby.

If there is no standby switch, there is nothing you can do. The high voltages are hitting the plates as soon as you turn it on. This can lead to shorter tube life, but is not hurting the amp. Just like any metal, the plate can heat and expand to quickly and lead to internal shorts in the tube. Its really only a problem if there is a bit of a factory defect in the tube. This is why they say it CAN lead to shorter tube life, not that it WILL lead to shorter tube life. Don't worry about it plug in, play and enjoy.

You will notice that your amps sounds a bit better after the tubes get nice and hot.


I just replaced a 30 year old 6V6 in my 74 Champ that has no standby. I only replaced it because it started to rattle a little. I wouldn't worry about it. Tubes are designed that way. If that were the case of a tubes getting slammed by high voltage I'd be replacing them every week. All the standby switch is doing is letting the tube filaments heat up to proper operating temperature. Newer tubes who knows? They don't make em like they used to.


Exactly, hopefully you read my whole post, as I essentially said the same thing you said. It seems like you may be arguing with me for no reason...maybe I just read into your post wrong, but I think we are on the same page. :wink:

Interesting though that standby switches are only on higher powered amps. These smaller amps mentioned do not have them. The original intention of a standby switch is to keep the tubes warm between sets. Maybe these smaller amps were not intented to be used on stage, so they see no reason for them. Also, my tube preamps do not have standby switches either, only my tube power amp has one. hmmm?

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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:09 am
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Nah, not arguing at all. Trying pretty much to back up what you said. Funny thing is most of the Class A amps have some pretty high plate voltages. I usually let them warm up a couple of minutes anyway. If you bring them in from the cold let the amp warm up to the temp change before you turn it on. People did use them on stage way back. Five or ten watt amps were pretty common.


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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:33 pm
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Thanks for the replies everyone!

As with everything new (to me) I want to at least try to understand what's going on under the hood.

Once again, many thanks.

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